Sleep in peace for I shall guard you
by scasfra
Summary: Eliot protects her while on a job, she protects him while he's asleep and since her mere presence guards him from unwanted shadows, she stays for the night, every night... Please R


**I do not own Leverage  
**

**I'd say this happens somewhere between the first and second seasons, even though timeline is irrelevant here. Eliot is trying to get some rest but he can't, Sophie comes to fix the problem.**

For the first time on a very long time Eliot feels like he needs more than ninety minutes to rest. He has been shot, stabbed and beaten up to a pulp over the years, he has been tortured and kept captive in few of the most dangerous prisons in the world yet nothing tires him more than this team. Sometimes, no matter how much he loves them, they are just too much. Nathan and his self-destructive actions, his control mania and the alcohol; Hardison with his whining and bickering, Parker with her energy and childlike manners and Sophie with her annoying ability to always read him.

He crashes on the leaving room couch, spreading with an arm behind his back and the other lying on his chest; Eliot doesn't like beds, he thinks they make you lazy so he lies on the couch instead only intending to sleep for a couple of hours.

Parker is the first one to appear. He recognizes her because he doesn't listen to footsteps, only silence. Of course, there would be silence too if she was absent, but Parker's silence is very distinctive.

He can feel her staring at him and he doesn't like it, he wants her to go away. She doesn't and pokes him on his bruised arm instead. He growls, his very angry growl so she understands the message and goes way, once again Parker was never great at reading people. She pokes him again. He opens his eyes.

"What?" He asks on a tone that could make grown men run.

"Good, you're awake!" She states happily with a maniac grin that always tells him she is up to no good. "I want cookies. The ones with chocolate chips on 'em!" and he gets up from the couch and walks to the kitchen, turning the oven on. Either that or she will keep poking him.

He has just thrown himself, lazily on the couch again when he hears Hardison's footsteps climbing the stairs to his apartment. Hardison can be as smooth as tiger watching its prey when it comes to computers and hacking but while walking, he is very detectable which makes sense; he never had to snoop around like him and Parker or even Nate and Sophie.

"Hey, Eliot..." The hacker stops on his tracks as he notices the hitter as his eyes closed. "It can wait..." He whispers as he walks away and Eliot smiles thinking that now he can finally sleep at peace.

Eliot doesn't sleep deeply, he's always aware of the environment around him, he learned long time ago "sleep deep and you may not wake up" so the ringing phone doesn't startle him. He doesn't even open his eyes, he knows who that is and he won't answer it. If it was an emergency Parker would already be there. The phone rings once, twice until Nate finally gives up, Eliot shifts on the couch trying to find a more comfortable position thinking that maybe now he will be able to rest.

Jasmine scent fills the air and Eliot smiles; he has become very bond of that smell along the past few months. He listens to the steps as they approach him carefully, high-heels. He feels the couch sinking in as she sits at his feet and thinks she's going to awake him, instead she brushes her fingertips at the scruff on his jaw and kisses him tenderly on the temple before getting up. He grabs her by wrists just before she's out of reach.

"I thought you were asleep" She says on a whisper as if he were still a sleep.

"I was just taking a nap..." She raises an eyebrow at him in disbelief.

"I really think you should have some proper sleeps hours, you know, on a bed."

"You know what I think about beds. I don't want to oversleep." He states simply, he truly doesn't like beds, only uses his when Sophie stays with him, before that, only when he had someone staying the night.

"It's our day off, besides oversleeping once won't kill you" He frowns.

"The more you sleep the more you want to, darlin'. How can I protect you if I am tired all the time?" She raises her arms in the air on a sign of defeat and frustration, but then her expression becomes challenging and she bites her lip.

"Fine, I will have to take you by force!" Eliot truly laughs at that, he has had some big, threatening, armed men trying to make him move and they failed, how would someone as small and light as Sophie do it?

She disappears into his room yet he doesn't follow, even though he has the feeling she has something up her sleeve.

She returns a few minutes later with her hair completely loose and her dress off. Her lingerie is lacy, black with dark green bows on it; she giggles as he jaw slacks open, he has seen her sexy, but this...

"Do you like it?" She asks, slightly biting the tip of her forefinger. He gets up from the couch. '

"I think I like what's underneath more..." She devilish smiles at him letting her hands trail over the fabric, running freely across the curves of her body.

"Does that mean you are going to help me out of it?" He wraps his arms around her waist, pulling her closer, her back pressing against his chest as he walks her towards the bedroom.

"I am always ready to help a lady in need!" Sophie laughs at that as he starts kissing her neck.

Sophie wakes up in the middle of the night with his phone rigging on the distance of the living room, she slides from his embrace and grabs his blouse from the floor sliding inside it, it's warm and comfy and smells like him, she would wear it twenty four/seven if he'd let her.

She takes a look at the screen. It's Nate again, she would have answered if it were Parker or Hardison yet it's different when it comes to Nate. They're not ready to tell him, not yet; he knows she moved on and that she has a boyfriend, however, telling him said boyfriend is Eliot it's a completely different story. She turns the cellphone off; whatever it is, it can wait.

She goes back to the bedroom, takes his shirt of and lies next to him. She rests her head on his chest and his left arm comes to embrace her waist even though he's deeply asleep.

Sophie knows why he doesn't sleep more than ninety minutes a night, she knows why he always sleeps on the couch, it's not he doesn't like beds; he actually doesn't like sleep itself. Sleep brings nightmares, sleep summons the ghost of all of his sins and he hates it because it's a reminder that no matter what good he does with the rest of his life, his past still is tainted with blood. The only times he allows himself to really, deeply, sleep is when she is around. He feels safe enough with her to lets his guard down; he forgets his surroundings, stops waking at any sound or smell and peacefully rests. Of course he still has nightmares sometimes, but that is fine because when he wakes up kicking and screaming she doesn't run away or steps back, she doesn't scare at the darkness on his eyes and doesn't let him shutdown as the monsters inside his head grown just enough to haunt him once more. She stays by his side in silent, ready to listen and in the end, whether he speaks or not, she never judges; instead she kisses him and tells him he is a good man, hoping one day he will believe as much as she does.

Eliot protects her while on a job, she protects him while he's asleep and since her mere presence guards him from unwanted shadows, she stays for the night, every night...

**Did you like it? Did you hate it? Tell me, make me happy!**


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